The Power of Committees in the Spanish Congress of Deputies

Abstract

Traditional theory based on long-standing democracies holds that legislative committee systems are more influential in public policy when the committees are permanent; possess member expertise, low turnover, ample resources, and weak party discipline (Loewenberg and Patterson, 1979, p. 125; Mezey, 1979, p. 43; Olson and Norton, 1996, pp. 6, 11; Strøm, 1990b, p. 43). While there is still little research on legislative committee systems in new democracies, the existing studies of the newer democracies in Eastern Europe point to two trends: a significant difference between formal powers and practice, as well as variation in the strength of committees from one legislative session to the next (Ilonszki, 1995; Jackiewicz and Krok-Paszkowska, 1997; Zajc, 1997).